Category Archives: News

Member paddle trips on the waterways of New York City are the invaluable reward that NBBC members get for their part in furthering our mission of advocacy for and enabling access to the waters for the NYC community. But we always hope that members will become member-volunteers and that those will in turn become trip leaders and the next cohort actively involved in bringing new people out on the water and showing New Yorkers that the waters belong to no one — and so belong to all of us.

And so it’s always great news when a group of members take the first step to becoming trip leaders: passing their Level 2 for canoe or kayak paddling. From here to Official Paddler status to trip leader: that’s the path we hope NBBC members discover and paddle down.

L2 Canoe training at Lake Sebago

And it’s for this reason that we have a culture of learning and teaching. Member trips are always skills workshops, always another chance to sharpen paddling techniques, to understand the tidal currents of our estuary, and to learn of the deep connections we all have with the waters that surround us.

The 2018 L2 Canoe Class at Lake Sebago

At our Lake Sebago cabin this past weekend, six more NBBC members passed their Level 2 tests, this time in canoe paddling. In the words of their instructor, NBBC OP (original paddler!) Jens Rasmussen, “This may be one of the strongest groups we’ve had yet — a testament to our growing canoe culture and mentorship.”

So we want to thank Jens and congratulate our new Level 2 canoeists — with the hope that all NBBC members will move along the road toward becoming more skilled, more connected, and more able to pass that knowledge along to the next group to discover our home waters.

Since 2006, the Paddling Film Festival has delivered the world’s best kayaking, SUP, canoe, and whitewater films to screens around the globe. This year’s lineup will transport you to Scotland, where you’ll experience a solo stand-up paddleboard circumnavigation of the Isle of Skye; British Columbia, where you’ll embark on a bikepacking and packraft expedition through the heart of sacred headwaters; Northern Pakistan and the extreme whitewater of the Rondu Gorge on the Indus River; and many other destinations for breathtaking adventures.

North Brooklyn Boat Club and the NY-NNJ chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club are thrilled to ​​​​be cohosting the 2018 Paddling Film Festival World Tour in New York City. Please join us on Tuesday, May 22, at Symphony Space for an evening of river, lake, and ocean beauty and adventure that will leave you inspired for the 2018 paddling season!

In 2014. NBBC welcomed Amy and Dave Freeman on their journey by canoe from Ely, Minnesota, to Washington, D.C., where they hoped to draw attention and federal protection to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, which is threatened by sulfide-ore copper mining. Two years later, the fight not over, Amy and Dave spent an entire year in the BWCA. Part of that year is captured in the short film Bear Witness:

The BWCA is still threatened by the sulfide-ore copper mining. Here’s the latest information from Save the Boundary Waters:

Recently, federal agencies in charge of managing and protecting this area denied two old mining leases next to the Wilderness and announced a two-year “time out” on mining activities in order to thoroughly study the watershed of the Boundary Waters and determine if this is the wrong place for sulfide-ore copper mining. This is a great first step as we work to establish permanent protection, but our work is not done. Please ask your family and friends to join you in signing our petition, thanking decision-makers for taking this first step, and urging them to enact permanent protection for the Boundary Waters: Here’s the link to take action.

We hope all NBBC members and all those who believe in preserving one of the last unpolluted spaces in the United States will tell the government that you care about saving the Boundary Waters Canoe Area from pointless industrial degradation.

We at NBBC paddle all season in waters that are thoroughly imbricated in the country’s industrial legacy. We treasure those small measures of wilderness that break through this history of abuse: egrets in Dutch Kills, kingfishers in Bushwick Inlet, cormorants watching the ferries pass on the East River. All of these things let us see the city again, for the first time, in new ways, and rededicate us to NBBC’s mission: enabling and advocating for access to the waterways of New York for its residents. Stewardship and rehabilitation of those waterways is the natural outgrowth of this mission.

Egret in Dutch Kills, July 28, 2017

It seems natural then, to expand this mission to one of the few places left in the country that has not suffered this extraordinary abuse, where you can dip your canteen into the lake water for a drink and listen to the loons call in the autumn and the wolves howl in the winter. We hope everyone who sees this takes a moment to learn more about the Boundary Waters and then takes action.

Memberships to the North Brooklyn Boat Club are the perfect way to tell the committed, caring, and adventurous people in your life that you get them! NBBC is a community-based, mission-driven organization dedicated to enabling and advocating for access to the waterways of New York City for city residents, especially in North Brooklyn and Long Island City. All of our events; member trips by canoe, kayak, and rowboat; and environmental-education activities are run by our member-volunteers and funded mainly by membership dues. So belonging gives more than access to a new way to see the city — it actively helps the club’s mission of access and stewardship for all New Yorkers.

Involvement and investment in NBBC’s work to advocate and facilitate water access, human-powered boating, and environmental restoration of the waterways of North Brooklyn

The 2018 Membership dues are still just $40. That’s less than two weeks of a Metrocard because we want to include as many people as we can as NBBC members.

But how do you give such a wonderful gift?!

A very holiday URL

Just use our online membership form. Fill out as much information as you can on behalf of your giftees: name, address, DOB, contact number, especially. To heighten the holiday mystery of it all, you can use YOUR e-mail address so that your giftees won’t know a thing until you tell them. NBBC is also making a special holiday e-mail announcement to send to all new members who join between December 16 and January 1. And you can also print out a customized membership card and present that as an indication that you know the people in your life who are most committed to adventure, fun, advocacy, stewardship, and all the good things in life!